| Mercer County Sheriff's Office |
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| Mercer County Sheriff's Office - 906 SW 3rd St, Aledo, IL 61231 - (309) 582-5194 |
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Mercer County Press Release-
Today Sheriff Tom Thompson and the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department
launched a new sex offender registration and public notification website called
OffenderWatch®. Mercer County will now be part of a nationwide network of over
5,000 law enforcement agencies which includes over half of the Illinois county
sheriff’s offices and police departments. The new service is a citizen-friendly, easy
to use website that enables citizens to search for potentially dangerous sex
offenders and predators which may be in close proximity to their homes, places of
work, schools, churches and day care centers. The information is available 24
hours a day 7 days a week and is updated in real time by the Mercer County
Sheriff’s Office as offender information changes and is reported. As part of this
new, innovative service, citizens may enter any address of interest to them, and
see a map and listing of all offenders within a user defined radius (of .25 miles out
to 2 miles) of that address. Citizens can then register the address to be
continuously monitored by the Sheriff, who will send to them an email alerting them
if an offender or predator should register an address within their specified radius
of their address. Citizens may confidentially register as many addresses as they
like, at no cost to them. “Citizens have a right to know who may be living near them
and could potentially pose a threat to their families. The Illinois sheriffs have the
most up to date information on all offenders registered in the state and I am happy
to be able to provide that information to them” says Sheriff Thompson. The sheriff
has also made available additional web based resources designed to educate and
inform the public on ways to keep their families safe. The purpose of the program
is to lessen the anxiety of citizens by proactively alerting them should an
offender/predator move within proximity to them, and to provide the highest level
of security and safety to all Mercer County citizens. The program also enables
the Sheriff to verify that offender addresses do not violate any safety buffers that
may be implemented around protected institutions in the county, such as schools,
day cares and parks, and helps law enforcement schedule compliance checks for
verifying information provided by offenders. With Halloween rapidly approaching,
this is a wonderful resource for parents to know which houses are safe and which
should be avoided while trick or treating. Citizens can access the
OffenderWatch® registry at the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office OffenderWatch®
web page accessed at: http://www.sheriffalerts.com/il/Mercer/
FInd the link to "Offender Watch" in Sex Offender Tab of this website
Today Sheriff Tom Thompson and the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department
launched a new sex offender registration and public notification website called
OffenderWatch®. Mercer County will now be part of a nationwide network of over
5,000 law enforcement agencies which includes over half of the Illinois county
sheriff’s offices and police departments. The new service is a citizen-friendly, easy
to use website that enables citizens to search for potentially dangerous sex
offenders and predators which may be in close proximity to their homes, places of
work, schools, churches and day care centers. The information is available 24
hours a day 7 days a week and is updated in real time by the Mercer County
Sheriff’s Office as offender information changes and is reported. As part of this
new, innovative service, citizens may enter any address of interest to them, and
see a map and listing of all offenders within a user defined radius (of .25 miles out
to 2 miles) of that address. Citizens can then register the address to be
continuously monitored by the Sheriff, who will send to them an email alerting them
if an offender or predator should register an address within their specified radius
of their address. Citizens may confidentially register as many addresses as they
like, at no cost to them. “Citizens have a right to know who may be living near them
and could potentially pose a threat to their families. The Illinois sheriffs have the
most up to date information on all offenders registered in the state and I am happy
to be able to provide that information to them” says Sheriff Thompson. The sheriff
has also made available additional web based resources designed to educate and
inform the public on ways to keep their families safe. The purpose of the program
is to lessen the anxiety of citizens by proactively alerting them should an
offender/predator move within proximity to them, and to provide the highest level
of security and safety to all Mercer County citizens. The program also enables
the Sheriff to verify that offender addresses do not violate any safety buffers that
may be implemented around protected institutions in the county, such as schools,
day cares and parks, and helps law enforcement schedule compliance checks for
verifying information provided by offenders. With Halloween rapidly approaching,
this is a wonderful resource for parents to know which houses are safe and which
should be avoided while trick or treating. Citizens can access the
OffenderWatch® registry at the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office OffenderWatch®
web page accessed at: http://www.sheriffalerts.com/il/Mercer/
FInd the link to "Offender Watch" in Sex Offender Tab of this website